


Through the Rift - Part Two

by ladydragon76



Series: Through the Rift [2]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One, Transformers: Shattered Glass
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-19
Updated: 2014-09-19
Packaged: 2018-02-17 23:03:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2326298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladydragon76/pseuds/ladydragon76
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><b>Summary:</b> Weird stuff is still afoot, and Starscream wants to go home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through the Rift - Part Two

**Author's Note:**

> **‘Verse:** G1, Shattered Glass  
>  **Series:** Through the Rift  
>  **Rating:** R  
>  **Characters:** Starscream, Megatron  
>  **Warnings:** AU like whoa, Bad G1 ‘science’  
>  **Notes:** Special, uber huge thank you to NK! Without her, this fic would be nothing. It was her critique and questions and enabling that made it happen, and that's not even touching all the editing and teaching she did with me. All the luv!  <3

A shriek tore from Starscream’s vocalizer as he suddenly found himself falling. Wet leaves and thin, whip-like branches lashed him as he tumbled down, crashing against one tree only to be thrown into another. Unable to right himself, he splashed face-first into gritty, murky, utterly _foul_ water. He flailed, gyros spinning mercilessly, and struggled against the sucking mud that grabbed and pulled at his hands and knees like a living thing. Mud blocked most of his vision, but he didn’t dare stop moving to try to clean it off.

He was _not_ going to be stuck in a smelly bog for the rest of time. That would please Megatron far too much.

Starscream’s hand slipped over something solid, and he made a second grab for it while trying to figure out what the shadowy form in front of him was. _Please be a tree_ , he thought, and dragged himself closer, wincing at the cold ooze of mud as it squelched under his plating.

He was never going to feel clean again.

Starscream’s hands slipped over the smooth surface, but it was definitely a tree, a strong, stable one at that. He managed to get his knees on the roots, sliding a bit before locking himself in place, and then he just hugged the trunk for a few minutes while he forcibly blew the muck from his vents and tried to catch his breath

Thank frelling Primus no one else was there to see him as he gagged and coughed and retched. It was all embarrassing enough without an audience, and Starscream had no trouble at all imagining the laughter as he gracelessly struggled from tree root to tree root, slipping and sliding, then finally managing to slog his way onto solid ground. Not that it was very solid, or even really ground, just a slightly less wet mud packed between the spindly, gnarled roots of the narrow-trunked trees. They grew close together and large, numerous leaves blocked out most of the daylight and all of the sky while raining slimy water down on Starscream as he struggled along.

He thought he might have an idea of just where he was, but flying was out of the question. Even as talented and skilled as he was, getting through the tangled mass above him was just begging for an injury he wouldn’t be able to repair on his own. Starscream most definitely did not need to end up with a wound that would fester and rust in all this damp. In fact, he was exceedingly lucky he had only acquired a few dents during his fall. Another piece of luck was that it was not excessively hot. Starscream had been in the rain forests of Earth a few times, and while wet sucked slag and was uncomfortable, wet and oppressively hot was far worse.

Wings angled back and held low to protect them, Starscream pushed between the trees. It was slow going, and to distract himself, he thought on all the things Soundwave had reported. It had read as fiction, but Soundwave had been adamant, and he wasn’t exactly the type to make up outlandish lies just to mock Starscream. If anything, Starscream had felt that details were being left out of Soundwave’s retelling of his time spent in the strange patchwork planet he’d woke up on. That alone made Starscream even more curious. He tried to hide it, tried to suppress it, but the little science geek that loved showing up his professors and exploring the universe was still alive and strong inside him.

There was nothing on Earth that Starscream or Soundwave could detect, so Cybertron was the next logical place to search for clues. The Autobot might have fallen into another dimension from Earth, but Soundwave had shown up there first, and he had been on Cybertron when it happened.

The surprise was in that Starscream had been traveling _in_ the space bridge when he was taken. That shouldn’t have been possible at all. The laws of physics just didn’t work that way.

Then again, the laws of physics did not leave room for the type of planet Soundwave described. Two suns and four moons? Sure. A gash in the sky that always hovered directly overhead and was filled with constellations _Soundwave_ had never seen on any star map ever before? Not so much. And that wasn’t even touching the completely alien landscapes slapped down next to one another. Starscream hadn’t understood the concept at first, but then the telepath had shown him a blanket Ravage had stolen from the humans that was made up of different strips of random shapes and colors and patterned fabrics. Starscream had been intrigued, but he hadn’t wanted to end up there himself.

He was jumping to conclusions, but this was like no place on Earth he had ever seen, and it certainly wasn’t Cybertron.

It took _hours_ of inching along for Starscream to get to an area where the trees just suddenly stopped. He was exhausted, furious, and frustrated, and had he not been so stunned by the sudden shift in temperature and air currents upon stumbling into the open, he would have thrown himself to the strange grey and black grass to have a nice tantrum.

Instead of indulging, Starscream walked farther into this new land, wings flicking at the sudden chill. The temperature in the swamp had been far from unbearable, but it had been much warmer than this plain, too much so to be explained by the trees merely trapping the heat. Looking back, it was easy to see the border. Nothing but dense, tangled, and _wet_ trees ran in an incredibly straight line in either direction.

Starscream went back and stepped between two trees. It was like stepping out of a refrigeration unit. The dry chill disappeared to be replaced with humid warmth. He shifted back, wings crossing the border first. Crisp air brushed over them while the rest of Starscream remained warmer.

“Hm.”

Stepping back and looking up, then left and right, Starscream grinned. Given Soundwave’s story and how long he’d been stuck in that crystal forest of his, Starscream decided to count his escape as a victory. He still had mud packed into his thrusters, but he could see the sky now, complete with black, star-filled gash stretching above him. It looked to be mid-afternoon, judging by the white binary suns to his right, but more important than the time was _where_ Starscream was.

The land was fascinatingly alien, and the lingering frustration ebbed in the wake of curiosity. The ground was covered in short-bladed, grey-black grass except where pale, nearly silver, rocks protruded through black dirt. The air was -blessedly- dry, though Starscream couldn’t detect a scent beyond the bog that covered him.

Primus, that was rank.

Maybe he could find some clean water to wash in. _Please_ let him find some water he could clean himself in?

In the distance he could see trees, reminiscent of Earth’s weeping willows. Like the grass, the trunks were dark, and the long draping branches looked blue-black. Starscream began walking toward them, helm swiveling almost constantly to take it all in, but that quickly got boring as the land was flat but for a low hill here or there. He was in the open now, and that mud was bugging the slag out of him as it began to dry out.

Launch was almost an unconscious reaction, one heel thruster coughing as a clod was blasted free. Starscream flexed his plating as much as he could, shedding the drying mud in flakes and patches. Very quickly, he discovered there was no water near the willows, and so flew onward. He wanted to find a lake, a river, _something_ with clean water before it was too dark to see any threats in it.

Luckily, this patch of land seemed to be small, and Starscream saw the straight line of another border ahead after only an hour of flight. He slowed down until he hovered a short distance from it, and then he stared at the trees that dotted the new landscape. Branches whipped, the slim, flexible trunks bent, and lush, long, _blue_ grass blew nearly flat in heavy gusts of wind, only to straighten and settle a few moments later.

Starscream landed, caution winning out over curiosity. He stood a handful of paces back from where black grass came to a sudden stop and long blue stalks grew into the distance, and watched. Where he stood, the same chilly breeze he’d noticed after leaving the bog drifted over his plating, but just across the border, the wind began to blow again. Starscream couldn’t feel it where he stood at all, so he took slow, careful steps forward until he could hold his hand out over the border. Wind pushed at his fingers, gaining speed and making the branches whip again. Snickering, he then pulled his hand back as the wind died down once more. It was strong, but it wouldn’t be impossible for him to manage. Flight might be interesting, but then it was so rare that Starscream was given a real challenge in the air anymore.

Grass brushed Starscream’s knees as he stepped across the border and a sweet scent filled the warm air. There were birds or something of the like that twittered and sang, though Starscream couldn’t see them. He walked until those unseen creatures quieted and the next wind cycle came, then turned into it, wings locked in place. He used his antigravs to liftoff, giggling as he was blown backwards and forced to engage his thrusters just to hold his position. It was play, and he unashamedly threw himself into it. There was no one to see anyway, so why not be a little free?

Just a little though, because he only had that one spare cube in his subspace, but his playing still served a purpose. Starscream could fly in the wind at its strongest without issue and that was what he had most needed to know.

Still smiling, Starscream pushed higher as the wind died down. Below him the sounds of wildlife picked up again, and he continued south for a time. The wind cycles came regularly, the start signaled by the quieting of the twittering creatures hidden in the blue branches. It was all so monochrome, that he was relieved to finally spot a little stream cutting through the land. It was still blue, but the water glittered as it rippled over the stony bed and wound through the spattering of trees. Starscream changed direction to follow it. Streams often led to rivers, and he was hoping to find something a bit wider and deeper. If it came to it, though, he could land and use a spare cloth to at least wipe himself down, but getting a good soak would be preferred.

Whatever crazy gods ruled this patchwork planet were smiling on Starscream, because as the suns began to set he spotted a lake and angled toward it. It wasn’t terribly large, but his scanners couldn’t detect the bottom only a few mechanometers out from the shore. It might be overkill on the ‘deeper’ part of his previous wish, but he’d take it. Carefully.

Landing as the winds grew again in strength; Starscream sat on the bank and let his thrusters cool for a moment. He didn’t want to risk a strong gust pushing him off a slick stone and tumbling off into blackness. Megatron wasn’t there to berate him wisely using caution in the face of the unknown, so why not be less rash? Besides, this land was fascinating. The trees stopped a few paces back from the edge of the water, but they weren't tightly clustered like in the bog. Smooth, small rocks surrounded the lake. They clattered and clacked together as Starscream moved and set them to rolling down the bank and into the water. Like the grass and trees, the stones were mostly blue, but some held veins of pale grey and white. He wiggled his feet into the lake, still nervous about simply sliding into the depths.

Once the wind died back, Starscream scooted his way into the lake. He was able to lay back, helm still on the very edge of the water while the rest of his body was submerged. He fluffed up his plating despite the cold of the water, hands gripping at the gravelly bottom to help anchor him. Minute shifts became larger, more focused movements as his confidence grew. Even when the wind began again, he didn’t slide away from his spot by the shore.

The water grew murky from the mud rinsing away, then dark as the first of the suns set, and finally Starscream felt clean enough to drag himself from the lake. The wind bit at his plating, quickly cooling as night began to take hold.

Just as Starscream was considering leaving for a more comfortable spot to recharge, the sky cracked with lightning. He would never admit to the scream that tore from his vocalizer, especially since he liked to dance in the clouds during storms on Earth. It was just the sudden unexpectedness of it, of course.

Another thunderclap jolted him and his optics dazzled from the flare of light, his very spark rattling in its casing.

What the frag was that falling from the sky?

~ | ~

Megatron lifted his arm to block the rain of debris and protect his face, audials ringing from the blast. That had been too close. Where had Optimus Prime managed to find those explosives? And was this a new level of madness that drove him to lob them haphazardly into their battling mechs? He was damaging his own people!

Then again, Prime did not care about anyone, and wasn’t that why Megatron still had to lead the good embers he cared for into combat? It was a waste, but he had long ago admitted that he wasn’t going to get through to Prime. He just had to do the best to keep his family together and alive.

“Megatron! _Megatron_!”

Megatron heard Starscream’s desperate cry, but it was too late. He’d been hurrying forward, optics off Prime as he rushed to help the unconscious Misfire before the dazed Autobot he’d been fighting with could stagger to his feet and harm him.

Megatron never made it.

He would have thought that being blown to spare parts would hurt more, but all he could feel was the sensation of falling. Perhaps a little chilled, actually. He thought it would be hot to die in fire, and cycled his vents, drawing in the refreshing air. He was overly warm, but that was common with running and fighting a battle. Just breathing felt good. He drew in another breath, body relaxing. Death was strange.

The impact was sudden and shocking. Cool air turned to frigid liquid, invading his vents, thick and viscous in the filters. Megatron thrashed, the peace of his short death fall gone and replaced by icy terror. He was still falling. Sinking. Looking up, he grasped after the surface, seeing it move, air bubbles fizzling around him, the light beyond the fluid fading. He reached for it, begging life not to let him go yet. He needed to protect them. He needed to be there with his family, his little ragtag band of embers clinging to hope for a better future if they could just hold on long enough. He couldn’t leave them yet.

A dark shape appeared above Megatron, and he reached for it, desperate, kicking, struggling, seeing the surface lift away from him.

Then his wrist was grabbed. Megatron floundered with his other hand, managed to grasp a forearm and blinked in shock. A mech! He clung as he was dragged, feeling the uneven pulls. He was heavy, Megatron knew, but this mech was saving him. He did his best to relax and ignore the burn of the fluid in his vents, letting himself be towed along. His lower legs smacked against rock, then his aft and back were dragged over loose gravel. Above his head, the mech’s feet -obviously a flyer- plunged in, the sounds garbled and strange to Megatron’s audials.

Megatron was given one last hard tug, and then released. He struggled again, planting his hands as he rolled to his knees, and was finally able to push his face above the surface. He coughed and sneezed, a full-body shudder rattling his plating as he crawled toward the shore. His wings ached, his gyros were spinning, and he really hoped his helm wouldn’t simply explode from the pressure within it.

When he was finally able to cycle his vents somewhat normally, Megatron looked up, mouth parting in confusion. He didn’t recognize his rescuer right away, but he very quickly took in the red optics, the _purple_ Decepticon badge, and then really focused on the dark face. He realized just what he was seeing. This was one of the ‘evil’ Decepticons Cliffjumper had told them about. Megatron held still, uncertain if he would be attacked or not and carefully watched the mech’s face. He looked remarkably like Starscream, but he was harder, angrier despite the confusion clouding his expression. The dark helm shook slowly in what Megatron thought might be denial, fear flashing in the red optics.

Megatron flinched as the mech suddenly launched. “Wait! Please wait!” He struggled to solid ground, rocks rolling and shifting under his hands and feet, and leaned into the rising wind as he stood. His voice was thrown back in his face when he tried to call out again.

A quick glance around was all Megatron needed to make his choice. He launched too, chasing after this ‘evil’ Starscream. He needed answers, and he did not wish to stay by the liquid-filled abyss. He flew hard into the wind, strong but sore from the battle. In truth, he was surprised he wasn’t far more damaged, but he wasn’t about to complain. He had gotten extremely lucky.

Thankfully, that luck of his was holding. Ahead, the fading light reflecting red-gold off the mech’s plating, Megatron could see as he dropped to the line where the land changed from blue to red.

~

The wind disappeared in an instant, and Starscream scowled at the oven-like heat as he stepped into the new territory. Caution was stealing his escape, but like slag was he going to just charge into an unknown environment. He landed, hissing as his feet sank a little into the dark red sand. He kicked at it, glaring across the rolling dunes.

What had he done? _Why_ had he even bothered? The mech looked a _lot_ like Megatron, which meant Starscream should have celebrated his death, not saved the slagger.

Said slagger landed heavily beside Starscream, only a few short paces away. Starscream locked his wings in place, flared out and held high, and gave the mech the haughtiest sneer he could muster. He was _not_ going to show fear, and hated himself that he felt it.

The Megatron look-alike offered a slight smile. “I wanted to thank you.”

Starscream bared his teeth, fists clenching.

“I’m Megatron.”

“I’m aware,” Starscream bit out. Not Megatron as he had ever known him, but the look, the name; he was Megatron alright. This was bad in an additional way as well. Was this anomaly pulling mechs from other dimensions now too? Was the whole of the multiverse destabilizing suddenly, or was this a new occurrence?

Megatron blinked rich blue optics, confusion and something else crossing his features before he recovered. He glanced around, and then turned back with another smile. “This is an odd land. Nothing like Cybertron. Is this your world?”

Starscream eyed the mech. “I’ve never seen Megatron panic over a little water.” He sneered again instead of answering, really taking in the mech’s details. The Decepticon symbol was red. _Autobot_ red, and those optics were very blue. Granted, optical lenses weren’t universally colored, but Starscream couldn’t think of a single Decepticon with blue, and very few Autobots had red anymore. The plating was white, and this Megatron had wings. There were actually a fair number of outward-appearing differences, but Starscream wasn’t about to make the mistake of thinking this Megatron was different in anything but looks and alternate mode.

“Water,” Megatron repeated the word, and then shook his helm. “I’ve never been in… water.”

“How’s that possible? Even Cybertron has water, how do you think the Rust Sea formed?”

“There is no water on Cybertron. No… seas. Nothing. It is hot and corroded. We cannot see the stars beyond the low haze that covers all the sky, and no flyer, not even me, has managed to go high enough to break free of it.” Megatron looked up at the stars glinting to life in the twilit sky, and Starscream glared at him with narrowed optics.

“This isn’t my world,” Starscream said at length, speaking slowly. “It’s some anomaly. A world made from sections of other worlds. Soundwave was trapped here for weeks, but he returned within an hour in our reality. I was headed to Cybertron to investigate when I landed here.” He huffed, shaking away some of the tension. “Leave it to Megatron to send me to my doom and fail.”

“Why would he do such a thing?” Megatron gasped, optics snapping back to Starscream’s face.

“I should have let you drown.” Starscream flicked his wings, meeting Megatron’s optics. He scowled as puzzlement melted into pitying understanding. “Stop that!” he hissed, but Megatron’s expression went _sad_. “I said, _stop that_!” he screeched, cringing back.

“I’m not-”

“That! Stop that! You aren’t fooling me! I really _should_ have left you in that lake. I can find my own way home, I don’t need _you_!”

Megatron held up his hands in a gesture of surrender and took a step back. “Wait. Wait, there’s a way back?” he asked. “No, of course there is. You said Soundwave returned.” He shifted toward Starscream again, but he stopped himself quickly. “Please. Tell me again what you know of this place?”

Starscream shook his helm, not in reply, but in denial of the mech’s act. He was _not_ going to be such easy prey, though maybe he could use the bastard. Starscream had baited Megatron enough to know his tells for when he’d pushed too far. He _could_ be careful. He could - _maybe_ \- try to snark less. Just a little.

Mind made up, Starscream sat and gestured for Megatron to do so as well. “Soundwave discovered a pattern to what he called the ‘rift’. It travels about seven hundred and twenty miles in about six and three-quarters days, and is only open for _seconds_ each time it appears. What’s curious, however, is that I’m nowhere near where Soundwave and Bluestreak were,” Starscream said. “And you shouldn’t have appeared so soon if we were going to follow their pattern.”

“It’s growing more common?” Megatron asked, fingers poking little valleys into the sand.

Starscream shrugged. “I don’t know. You’re from an alternate reality, which based on my information suggests it’s getting worse. My plan is to get to where Soundwave and Bluestreak saw the rift last, then track it and go home.” Yes. Yes, that was absolutely his plan, and exactly what he was going to do. “More importantly. Do you have energon? A converter? Anything?”

Megatron shook his helm. “Who would have a converter anymore?”

Frowning, Starscream sighed. “Well. I managed to create electricity and convert that to energon in Medieval Earth. I’ll figure something out here.”

~ | ~

Megatron woke, groggy and tired from the lack of proper recharge. The grass was certainly more comfortable than the sand, but the way the winds came and went, the way they rushed over his wings and snapped the long blades of grass against his plating, made cycling down fully almost impossible. Everything smelled so strange, it was too cool, and he was hyperaware of Starscream. The mech’s energy field thrummed with his fear and irritation. Megatron wasn’t even sure Starscream knew he was projecting so strongly -and he wasn’t about to mention it- but that also disturbed his recharge.

Starscream clearly didn’t get much rest either, and he sat up with a groan, looking to the sky first, then back to Megatron with a glare. “Ugh. I suppose you expect breakfast?”

“Breakfast?” Megatron asked in a distracted voice, his optics locked on the bright blue sky that stretched above them. He had marveled at the stars during the night, but this was entirely beyond even his extensive reading. It was beautiful, incredible. There still remained a patch of the night sky too, stars sparkling in the black.

Starscream sighed, and shoved himself from the ground. Megatron looked at him, staying still in an effort to be nonthreatening, and watched as the mech began snapping branches from the trees. When he had an armload, Starscream stomped across the border and began arranging the wood on the sand.

“May I ask what you are doing?” Megatron asked, receiving an annoyed glare. This mech was so different from the Starscream he knew. So surly and aggressive.

“What? You want to light the whole field on fire?”

“Fire?” Megatron winced. He wasn’t making a very good impression, was he?

“Primus.” Starscream stood, aimed a weapon he’d pulled from his subspace, and fired.

The branches ignited, sparking rather a lot, and Megatron watched, curious and easing himself closer. An oddly ozone smell filled the dry, hot desert air.

“Hm. Odd,” Starscream said. He pulled a device from his subspace, and set it up next to the fire, guiding a rod on a swing arm directly over the snapping, crackling flames.

Megatron’s optics widened, his jaw going slack as a cube-shaped energy field began to fill with shifting, swirling energon. But it was _pink_ , not green.

“This is far more effective than I’d anticipated,” Starscream said, removing the now full cube before pressing a button and starting the process over.

“I… don’t know if I should consume that,” Megatron said, eying the pink cube doubtfully. He was hungry, and most certainly low on energy, but he had never before seen energon that color. What would it do to his systems?

Starscream shrugged, took a mouthful of the energon, and said, “Then starve. More for me.”

Megatron thought he really might mean it too.

He watched the second cube fill, more slowly this time as the fire quickly died down, and thought it over. Cliffjumper had been nervous about drinking green energon, but other than complaining about the taste, he had been fine. When the cube was ready and Starscream pulled it from the converter, Megatron held out his hand with a quiet, “Please.”

Starscream smirked, but he passed over the cube, watching in clear amusement as it was sniffed at first. Megatron took a sip, coughing, almost gagging at the impossible sweetness while Starscream snickered at him.

 _Now I understand why Cliffjumper hated our energon so much_ , Megatron thought, then gestured to the converter. “How is this working?” The Starscream he knew loved to explain his devices, and would chatter on happily about them to any willing audial.

Starscream started another cube, looking back at the blue trees across the border. “Fire puts out heat and energy, the converter collects it and turns it into energon. Simple.” He paused, still considering the trees. “It _is_ curious that this fire is putting out so much so fast, but I’m far more interested in finding the rift and getting out of here. It opens regularly,” he said, looking over at Megatron. “I just have to figure out where and when.”

“Do you have any coordinates?” Megatron asked, mouth opening to clarify his question, but Starscream’s snapped response cut him off, leaving him to stare in surprise.

“Of course not, you fool!”

The ire shifted to fear in an instant. Starscream winced, plating clamping down, his whole body going still. Megatron froze too, sadness squeezing his spark, his respiration held. What must his counterpart be like for this mech to fear him so much when they had only just met?

Starscream continued to glare, but he eased himself out of the tense, defensive posture. He turned his scowl to the fire, lower lip poking out in what Megatron was wise enough not to name a pout.

“This isn’t the landscape Soundwave described.”

Megatron nodded, allowing himself to relax some, but he was careful to keep his gestures small and slow. “Would you tell me about the lands Soundwave saw? Perhaps then we could begin searching for it and retrace his steps?”

“It was the shore of an ocean,” Starscream replied, using an unburned branch to prod the fire. “He fell into this world in what he called a crystal forest, though it was partly organic. After that he crossed some other organic landscapes, but he didn’t report anything unique or identifying about them.

“He had been traveling south when he found a Cybertronian city, tall walls, and the city gates closed and sealed. He said it was full of Empties.”

“Empties?” Megatron asked. “Mechs gone insane from lack of energon?”

Starscream nodded. “More monsters from your nightmares than mechs, but yes. They attack the living, even eat one another. However, all we have to do is find the city, we needn’t enter it. From the south gate, Soundwave and Bluestreak traveled south by southeast until they reached the ocean.” He raised a hand to rub his face wearily, his voice calming and gaining confidence as he spoke. “Our biggest issue is timing. Hardly any time passed in my world while he was here for weeks. Two weeks have passed in my world between Soundwave’s return and my departure.” He gestured at the sky. “There was a single, waning moon during the last night Soundwave was here. Last night we still had all four showing and they were full, or nearly so. Time has passed, but we have no way of knowing how much. Soundwave didn’t report on how fast the moons cycled.”

Megatron understood, but his mind had latched onto one particular statement. Starscream had said that time barely passed in his reality while Soundwave lived weeks in this world. If Megatron could return to his own world near the time he’d left it, then his Decepticons would not suffer Prime’s madness without him there to help.

There was still hope.

~ | ~

Starscream landed just as the first of the two suns were setting in the west, painting the desert sky purple and orange, and darkening the sand shifting under his feet to carmine. Megatron was not back yet, but there was once again a pile of wood next to the ashes of the previous fires. This… camp had become their base of operations. The blue wood burned with bright sparks in the red sand, creating cubes of quality energon very quickly. Starscream thought it had to be something in the air of the desert though he didn’t have the equipment to try and figure out what. The wood did not spark when burned in any other environment. He had even taken some sand and the wood into other world patches to experiment as he searched for the lands Soundwave had seen, but he had not been able to reproduce the reaction found in the desert.

Both Starscream and Megatron had a small supply of energon in their subspaces, but only the blue wood burned in the red desert air gave so much _good_ energon. Other fires worked, but slowly, and while the suns were powerful, Starscream’s converter wasn’t efficient enough at collecting solar energy to make use of it. Something he planned to see to as soon as he could.

Starscream didn’t like having to stay at the border, but he did understand the logic in it, and in searching a new direction every day. He figured the odds were against them given the size of the planet, but there was no point in leaving stable resources without having a direction toward their goal, or at least without having exhausted all hope of finding the city with the Empties or that crystal forest before moving on.

Pits, Starscream was even getting used to the winds and Megatron’s presence while recharging.

He was far less used to a _nice_ Megatron. It wasn’t right. Megatron, the one he’d known since the beginning of the war, was never like this. Not even when they got along best, before things had deteriorated. This mech was so… open, earnest. He was so careful in how he approached Starscream, how he spoke, but still Starscream remained braced for the moment that switch would flip. He had stopped instigating, trying to find the mech’s limits. Not from fear, but because it fragged him off to no end to see that sorrow and pity on Megatron’s face.

Damn Megatron. Damn every last one of them in the multiverse.

It was too _weird_ to consider a truly kind Megatron. It _had_ to be a trick, but the mech hadn’t slipped up even a little yet, and the tales he told of the Autobots of his world -particularly Optimus Prime- were chilling. Of course, Megatron was a talented liar once upon a time. Who was to say this one wasn’t?

Starscream shook his helm, setting up the wood so he could start the fire and trying to imagine a world where things were reversed. Maybe not completely inverted, but ‘evil’ Autobots? Starscream didn’t like the slaggers, but he didn’t think of the Decepticons he knew as particularly evil. Pits, in some cases, there were Autobots of looser moral fiber than Decepticons. He didn’t get to think on it long, however, as the sound of powerful turbines drew his attention to the white mech angling down toward him.

Megatron landed, a wide smile on his face. “I’ve found it, I think,” he announced, wings twitching in excitement. “It’s why I’m late. I thought I saw a shine in the distance, changed direction, and flew a little farther.”

“Where?” Starscream asked, a hard beat of hope making his spark throb faster in its crystal.

“Southwest of here,” Megatron replied, his tone excited and his arm pointing back the way he’d come from. “It was as you described. Cybertronian, fully walled. I checked, and there are four gates, all welded and sealed. The place is silent.” His wings fluttered in a light shiver. “It didn’t take me but a couple hours to fly back at top speed. What do you say to both of us going there and tracking down that ocean?”

“Yes.” Starscream rose, leaving the pile of branches in place. He would be able to find his way back even in complete darkness, so there was no reason to delay. “They walked for weeks, you understand? From that gate to the shore was weeks.”

“Of course,” Megatron said, still smiling. “But we can fly, and while I haven’t been transforming so I could use my optics more effectively, if I were to do so, I could fly even faster.”

Starscream dipped his chin in agreement, then launched, too excited and hopeful to waste more time talking about it.

It was a long flight, Megatron led them to the city, and then Starscream guided them to the ocean. They landed on the beach in the early hours of morning, the sky barely beginning to brighten in the east.

They stood in silence for a few moments, vents cycling loud and fast from the exertion of their flight, then Starscream sighed. “I couldn’t see the other side.” It was still very dark, visibility low, but that fact worried him. What if they _couldn’t_ cross?

“Are oceans generally small enough for that?” Megatron asked.

“No. On Earth I can cross the largest in a day, but without being much higher, nearly out of the atmosphere, I wouldn’t be able to see the opposite shore.”

“I think we should go back,” Megatron said. “Let’s spend a few days making as much energon as we can carry, then return here for a good recharge before we make the attempt.”

Starscream scowled out over the black water, watching the dim moonlight glitter off the waves. He wanted to argue, but he recognized that urge as just the desire to dispute Megatron since it was his idea. It was a good one though, and Starscream knew it, and he wanted to be home more than he wanted to argue.

“Very well. Let’s head back.” Starscream pulled a cube from his subspace, draining it quickly, and watching as Megatron did so as well. He hated to be so close and leaving, but it _was_ better to be prepared before trying to cross an unknown ocean.

~ | ~

Megatron stood at the edge of the ocean and let the breakers sweep over his feet. It was such a novel feeling, gentle but with a sense of power behind it. The light of the three-quarter moons glowed down, washing everything in a white-blue glow. The third had just risen above the horizon, and the fourth, a half moon, would be up within the hour. Behind him and up the beach a little, Starscream was recharging. Megatron knew he should be as well but his mind wouldn’t stop spinning.

There was no telling how long had truly passed since Soundwave had left. Judging by the moons, how much they had changed in the past week, and what Starscream relayed from Soundwave’s report, they had some time yet to reach the other bank and find the next possible location, but they just didn’t _know_.

It was strange to stand there, Megatron thought. In this spot –or _very_ close to it- Soundwave and a mech named Bluestreak had desperately dove through a rift in space and time in the hopes of returning home. Starscream had searched and found signs he said confirmed they were in the right spot. Megatron did not question him, not wishing to agitate the mech, cause him to lash out, and then flinch back yet again. He was coming to hate that. And his counterpart. Megatron couldn’t fathom abusing Starscream to the point where the sweet, cheerful mech would become so waspish and fearful, though that wasn’t the only reason why he couldn’t seem to recharge this night. His mind kept looping back to his calculations. The best he could do at this point was to cross the ocean, log the distance, and then _hopefully_ they would be able to figure out the next likely rift location. There were so many variables, and nothing to do but move forward in hope.

“You’re supposed to be resting,” Starscream said, voice soft but still startling Megatron.

Starscream was alternately calm and determined, and nervous and tense. Megatron didn’t blame him, but he was very careful of his own reactions and attitude. His ember bled just a little more every time the mech cringed away from him expecting a blow.

“I know,” Megatron replied, turning from the ocean. “My mind is racing.” He sat just out of arm’s reach of Starscream, and stared out over the waves again.

Starscream sighed and sat up. “How far can you fly without _having_ to recharge? From right now, your current state? I know that I can go a few days, but we could hit the point of no return and still not be in sight of land.”

“Two days?” Megatron estimated with a one-shouldered shrug. “What I would suggest is that we fly a full day, solid pace, but not wastefully fast. If we reach that limit and there is no land in sight, we come back.” He gestured south along the coast. “It would take longer, but could we circumnavigate?” 

Starscream snorted and shook his helm. “Oceans don’t work like that. Although.” He paused, red optics glowing as he gazed along the shoreline. “The ocean _should_ follow the curve of the planet…” he trailed off, and then looked north. “And if it curves the wrong way going south, then we’ll just try going north. If it’s that large of an ocean, it will take the rift itself quite a while to cross anyway. Very well. Fuel up, it’s time to go.”

Megatron pulled a cube from his subspace, bracing himself for the overpowering sweetness of it, drained it as quickly as he could to avoid tasting it, then stood. He gave Starscream a nod, then launched, trying hard not to think about just how many assumptions they were making.

~ | ~

Starscream slowed as Megatron did, both of them eying the dark clouds that gathered ahead of them.

“I don’t think we can avoid it,” Megatron said as he hovered to a stop. He pointed to the wide band of pewter as lightning jagged down to the waves, shaking his helm. “I don’t know if I want to fly through that though.”

Starscream snorted. “I’ve flown through worse storms for the pleasure of it. We saw land only a couple hundred miles ahead before that blew in. We can’t turn back now; it’d be a waste of time.”

Megatron chewed his lip, but dipped his chin. “I will follow your lead. I’ve never flown through such a storm before.”

“High wind, air pockets.” Starscream flapped a hand dismissively. “The lightning is the real danger. You’ll feel the energy gather, but by then it’s almost too late, and I don’t know about you, but while I can divert _some_ of the power of a lightning strike back out of my body, I’ve never been struck by anything more than a light, negatively charged cloud to cloud.”

“Don’t get struck,” Megatron said, chuckling a little. “Duly noted.”

“Stay… more or less close. Just in case. And fuel up,” Starscream said, grabbing an energon cube for himself. For the last few hours he had been watching Megatron flag, but they were almost there. He was _not_ turning back now. “Fly fast.”

Starscream started forward, transforming at speed and hearing Megatron do the same. The larger mech stayed back and to his right, and only slightly lower.

// _Keep your comms open,_ // Starscream said, and then they were in the storm.

Darkness enveloped them, and the winds pushed and pulled at Starscream’s wings. He felt his spark pulse harder. Storms were always fun. He could already feel the static charge building, tingling at the tips of his wings.

// _Get ready_.//

Light burst, but Starscream had already twisted to his right, forcing Megatron to dodge too. Bright, white-purple lightning danced around them, the **BOOM** of thunder reverberating throughout Starscream’s body, making his spark vibrate and skip a pulse. He laughed as he tore through the dark clouds, water streaming off his plating.

// _You seem to be enjoying this_ ,// Megatron said, voice raised even over the comm to be heard over the thunder.

// _It’s fun!_ // Starscream snapped back as he dodged again. Fragging Megatron! Fine it was serious, the storm was rough, but it was a challenge. Starscream wasn’t _playing_ ; he wasn’t taking any extra risks. It just happened to be _fun_.

// _My apologies_ ,// Megatron said. // _It wasn’t my intent to sound judgmental. I only meant it as an_ -//

// _Oh, cram it!_ // Starscream snarled. Primus! // _Just shut up. I need to con_ -//

The strike was like a thousand powerful blows to each micron of Starscream’s body all at once. Several systems quit responding in the first instant. Primus, but he _hated_ forced transformation.

“ _Starscream!_ ”

Oh. He was falling. Slag.

Starscream tried to get his body back under control, but nothing responded. He could hear the rush of the wind, and he could see dark grey switching to black to dark grey to white to black, but that didn’t make any sense just then.

“ _Starscream!_ ”

Something impacted Starscream’s wing, but it didn’t really hurt. That should probably worry him, but he was still trying to figure out the pattern to the black-grey-white. There had to be a sequence, he just hadn’t seen the full cycle yet. Yes, that was it. He would keep watching. Sight, bleary and staticky as it was, seemed to be the only sense he really had left beyond the roaring in his audials.

There was another touch, strong enough to register as pressure, against Starscream’s leg, and then more white. A _lot_ more white.

“Starscream! Take my hand!”

What? Hand? Starscream fought to understand. Hand. A hand. Yes, he was falling. That’s right. And now there was a hand trying to catch him? He tried to reach for the hand the voice shouted about, but his limbs were not obeying his commands, and he couldn’t see it, then ‘hand’ lost meaning again.

There was a wordless sound of fear and desperation made in the same voice as something thumped against Starscream’s arm, but then his whole body was slammed against something very solid. It wasn’t until icy salt water filled his vents that true awareness whipped against his mind.

Starscream tried to move, to fly, to simply reach up, but the lightning had fried his motor relays. Self-repair was already on it, but a simple systems reset would work as well and faster, at least for the most basic of movements. Unfortunately, he was sinking into the ocean, body betraying him, and the pressure of the deep would crush him before a reset completed and returned mobility.

The water around Starscream fizzed with bubbles, and a strong hand clamped around his wrist, pulling him back up through the water.

“I have you,” Megatron said, flying for the distant shore even as he arranged Starscream’s uncooperative body in his arms. His hold was painfully tight, but Starscream didn’t complain. The rain was pelting down, slicking their armor, and the last thing he wanted was to be dropped back into the ocean.

 _He sounds exhausted,_ Starscream thought, then, _He sounds more afraid than I am._ Not that he could dwell on it, or had the energy to worry, or could even mock Megatron just then. He needed that systems reset, and he needed it now.

~

“Almost there,” Megatron was saying when Starscream regained consciousness. “I can see it. You’ll be ok. Just a little longer. We’re almost there.” It had the rhythm of a mantra, and Megatron startled, body jolting against Starscream’s when Starscream turned his helm to look.

“I see it,” Starscream rasped, voice more static than not.

“You’re awake!”

“Obviously.” Starscream winced at his reply. Fragging Primus. He’d had to be rescued by the mech, and still needed his help. It would be a very bad time for Megatron to discover the end of his tolerance for Starscream’s snarking.

Instead of anger, Megatron chuckled tiredly. “Yes, and I’m glad.” His strength was visibly fading despite the relieved hum in his energy field.

Starscream tried to relax his body and remain still. He stared toward the beach, willing it closer, praying that they made it.

Moments later they were there, Megatron nearly skimming the peaks of the waves, the ground rushing up at them. With a final twist, Megatron flipped them, splashing down on his back, water pluming up all around them before they came to a stop with their legs still in the surf. Starscream grunted with the impact, canopy scraping against Megatron’s chest plating and sending a jag of pain to wrap around his middle.

“Sorry.” Megatron groaned, arms flopping out to the sides. “Are you- How badly are you hurt?”

“I’ve been worse.” Waves broke over their feet, and Starscream struggled to crawl off the mech and up the beach. His fingers sunk into the wet sand, and he could feel it scraping over his plating, making his sensors buzz with a prickling sort of pain.

“Haven’t we all?” Megatron rolled over and dragged himself from the water too, then once again flopped to his back with vents heaving. “That was frightening. Watching you fall.” He shook his helm, optics open, but staring blankly at the sky. Starscream frowned, but he didn’t know what to say, and Megatron continued on with his embarrassing confession anyway. “I thought my ember would gutter. I tried to catch you. Almost had you a few times, but then the ocean was just there, and-”

Megatron shivered, and then turned those too-earnest optics of his on Starscream. “I’m truly sorry, Starscream. I could have caught you, but I feared the water. I hesitated, and then you were sinking beneath the waves.”

Starscream blinked, wings twitching. “I’ll live,” he settled on. “Here.” He pulled two cubes from his subspace, hoping to distract Megatron from the topic of his near demise. His movements felt thick, and his hands shook from the exertion of just holding the energon out, but he really would live. He always survived. A little lightning wasn’t about to defeat him and the ocean was no longer of concern. “Come on. Drink it before you pass out,” he urged.

“Passing out may be inevitable.” Megatron braced himself up on an elbow though, and drained half the cube without even making a face this time before collapsing again. He was unconscious the very next instant, abandoning Starscream to inspect their new environment alone.

The beach looked like many of the beaches on Earth that Starscream had seen. Auburn sea grass crept out over light brown sand that stretched off to his left and right until it blended into the horizon. Shaking, cursing his weakness, Starscream pushed himself to his knees so he could see farther up the slope of the beach. There was a stand of trees or something not too far away. They looked bare, the branches jagged, dark claws thrust up at the blackening sky. It was going to have to do, because they needed to move. The breakers were already becoming more violent as the storm moved toward them, and having made it this far, Starscream wasn’t about to let the ocean have them now.

Unfortunately, Starscream could barely move himself, let alone haul a mech as heavy as Megatron up the beach.

Slag. He was going to have to wake the fragger.

Starscream sighed, and then dropped back to the sand, vents heaving. It could wait. He could see the clouds moving toward them, even smell the moisture in the air, but there was a little time. He just needed a few moments to gather his strength.

He stared at the storm, thoughts turning to their whole reason for flying through it in the first place. They needed to calculate where and when the rift would open next, _and_ Starscream needed to be sure he was the first through it.

Soundwave had been on Cybertron, Bluestreak had been on Earth, and when they entered the rift, they had returned to _Earth_. Soundwave’s report said he dove through behind Bluestreak. No way in the burning, smoldering Pits was Starscream being taken to a world where Optimus Prime was a monster who tortured for kicks. Megatron - _his_ Megatron- was a glitch with a temper that Starscream knew how to ignite or avoid. Sure, he was mad, but his was a madness that Starscream was familiar with. He was going home, not to yet another crazy planet.

Starscream _would_ be the first through the rift, and Megatron would just have to deal with Earth, and that was that.

Speaking of, Starscream thought as rain began to ping off his sore wings. He pushed himself up and crawled just within reach of Megatron to wake him.

~ | ~

“Good morning,” Megatron greeted, holding out a cube of energon to Starscream as he woke.

Starscream scowled up at the dark sky, but then took the energon. Megatron was surprised he didn’t snatch the cube away given how irritable he was. Two days of gale force winds and driving rain had finally stopped, which helped Megatron’s own mood, and would hopefully lift Starscream’s spirits too. At first the rain had been novel for Megatron, but then as it beat down, pinging constantly off his plating, he grew weary of it. It was impossible to rest, and Starscream needed to even more than Megatron. He certainly wasn’t recovered enough to try to fly in such rough weather, and neither of them had been sure they could outrun the storm anyway. They had tucked themselves up along a line of low, scruffy trees, trying to shelter from the worst of the storm. It hadn’t kept them dry, but it had served as a windbreak, and blocked some of the beating raindrops from pounding their wings.

Still, it was a relief to have a break from the storm, and if Starscream was doing better, they could even try to move on once they were fueled up.

“I’ve been thinking,” Megatron said, sipping his own energon. He was never going to get used to the sheer _sweetness_ of it.

“Did it hurt?”

Megatron blinked, and then snickered. “Not yet, thankfully. I do believe we’re off course a little based on the previous coordinates we set. I think we’re more west than we should be, but I did track our distance as we flew. My calculations, as best as I can make them, indicate we have about four days until the next appearance.”

“But we’re too far west?”

“Yes. We were blown off course in the storm. Given the distance, the estimated time that’s passed, and adjusting for our less than straight line once we found that storm, I have a vague idea of where the rift should open.”

“And..?” Starscream finish his cube, dispersing the field with a squeeze as he stood.

Megatron rose too, offering a slight shrug. “And we need to travel more easterly,” he answered, pointing the angle he believed they needed. “Two hundred and thirty-three point seven miles.”

“Gee. The point seven and everything.” Starscream rolled his optics, and waved Megatron forward. “Lead on, Mighty Leader.”

Megatron fought against the frown, turning away so Starscream wouldn’t see his expression. Now and then Starscream’s snarking was amusing, but then he’d say something else, and well, it was not amusing. He didn’t anger Megatron, because Megatron thought he understood. The mech was, in some ways, very like Sideswipe. Defensive, prickly. Understanding why Starscream behaved in such a way did not make it any less tedious for Megatron to constantly guard his reactions and emotions. It was that, however, or deal with seeing Starscream cringe in expectation of an attack. He just wished the mech would relax a little. There was no call for such a biting attitude. They’d saved one another’s lives, recharged within arm’s length of each other, were working together for mutual benefit. Was not _some_ tiny fleck of camaraderie reasonable at this point?

Megatron launched, not flying very fast as Starscream still had to be sore. His plating showed jagged scorch marks and there was a crack in his canopy, and while they did have energon still, they were rationing it carefully, and neither of them had had a proper recharge in days. Megatron truly hoped they were correct in their estimates, but even if they weren’t, they would have a few days to rest and recover some. He just wished he could push aside the worry that if he was wrong, Starscream would react badly. It might be completely reasonable that they had miscalculated -they were, after all, working off the assumption that very little time had passed between Soundwave’s departure and their own arrival- but he feared the meltdown he thought Starscream capable of.

He hoped his luck in this world held just a little longer.

~ | ~

Starscream waited, optics and scanners straining. It should be any time now. Any moment. Soundwave had given him all relevant information on the energy produced when the rift opened, and Starscream _knew_ his sensors were calibrated finely enough to detect it.

“It should have occurred by now,” Megatron said, turning in a slow circle, his own scanners washing over Starscream briefly.

“Shut up. We could be off just the slightest bit on time.”

“Or much longer.”

“Shut up!”

Megatron lifted his hands in surrender, which only infuriated Starscream more.

“This is _your_ fault!” Starscream hissed, jabbing a finger at Megatron’s face. “You said it would be here, and it’s not, this is your fault. You’re a fool!” His voice rose, growing shriller with each word. “I never should have trusted in that rusted out, glitch-ridden-”

“Starscream.”

 _Powerful_ hands gripped Starscream’s upper arms, and he reacted without thought. He dropped to his knees, shaking, wings angled back out of the way, as ice flooded his lines. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Forgive me. I’ll never do it again. I didn’t mean to yell. You aren’t a fool. _I’m_ a fool! I-”

Megatron knelt with him and pulled Starscream into a tight embrace.

“It’s alright. It will be, I promise,” Megatron said, voice a low, smooth rumble by Starscream’s audial. “We’ll go farther. More lunar cycles have passed than we originally believed, but we’ll be fine. You’ll get home. I swear I will get you home.”

Starscream remained still, body tense as Megatron continued to hold him and murmur encouragements to him. He had no idea what to do, but clearly the mech wasn’t planning to beat him. This might just be worse though. Starscream’s spark slammed in its crystal, respiration wheezing as he gasped and trembled in Megatron’s arms.

“We have six and a half days to move to the next possible location. Let’s assume another full lunar cycle passed before we arrived,” Megatron said, finally easing himself back from Starscream, though he only went far enough to make Starscream want to hide his face. “If we’re still incorrect, then we’ll assume two months, then three. Whatever it takes to find it, and while we do so, we’ll map this world, what we see of it, because when we return you to your reality, that information can only help.” He paused, offering Starscream a tentative smile. “Ok?”

Primus, but what could Starscream really say to that? He nodded, forcibly shifting his mind to the next logical step. “Ok. We’ll need to be cautious with our energon, and while we wait at the next point, we should make more, even if it’s far less than what we were getting in the desert. We’d be idiots to waste the opportunity.”

“Agreed, and before we risk starvation,” Megatron said, hands gently kneading Starscream’s arms, “we can always go back to that place and then restart if we must. It may take us time to get home, but we will. I’m not giving up.”

Starscream had nothing to say to that, so he pulled away and stood. His face felt too hot, and flicking his wings didn’t help settle him at all. Primus. That was so utterly new of an experience, he couldn’t even fathom it. It was like something Skyfire-

He nearly groaned out loud at the realization, but the fear and tension eased.

“Let’s go,” Starscream said. “We can get to the next possible spot by dawn, and then make ourselves a lovely little camp to wait in.”

Slag it. The glitch even had the same sort of encouraging, hopeful smile.

~ | ~

They were wrong, and though Megatron was braced for the worst, Starscream huffed, scowling in disappointment, and then asked if Megatron was ready to go to the next most likely location. The mech had really pulled it together, and that lack of camaraderie that Megatron had lamented… Well, it was still missing, but so was the tension. He no longer felt that Starscream would shatter to pieces if he expressed even a slightly negative emotion.

Now they were just waiting to see if they were right this time or not. Megatron had higher hopes this time than the last. They knew more about the lunar cycles, and that had allowed him to adjust the models a little. Waiting also gave them time to simply relax and get to know one another.

“No, really,” Megatron chuckled, amused by the disbelieving look Starscream gave him as he poked at the fire. “I did lectures in mathematics before the war. I was primarily employed in Polyhex, but I traveled quite a lot. I noticed a lot too. They called me crazy, but there were some that believed, and I was very lucky for that fact. I could see the war coming for a long time, and we did what prep work we could to build a resistance.”

“Because of math?” Starscream grinned, though it still looked like more of a smirk than the soft smile Megatron was used to seeing on the Starscream he had known for so long.

“Yes.”

“And that one correct prediction is why you feel we are in the right place for sure this time?”

“I suspect I’m right,” Megatron agreed. “Though if I am wrong, then that just gives us more data to fine-tune our equations.” Starscream shook his helm, but Megatron knew that was due to his optimism, not a disagreement. “What did you do before the war began for your people? You’ve clearly had some training in the sciences.”

“I held multiple degrees, but my majors were astrophysics and xenobiology,” Starscream replied. “My partner and I actually found Earth before the now sentient, dominant race developed. We were looking for alternative sources of energon.” He shook his helm and gestured at the little converter. “Those idiots insisted that the only energon Cybertronians could consume was from Cybertron. We set out to prove otherwise. Of course, once I returned I discovered that it wasn’t that those in power believed no other source could fuel our people and world, it was that _they_ didn’t want to lose their grip on their power by allowing in other sources.”

Megatron nodded his understanding. “I would dearly love to learn how to convert different energy sources to energon. We’re fighting over scraps in my reality. The wells are all but dry, the few either side has control over are jealously guarded, and any tiny spot found draws a bloody, _deadly_ battle. There’s just no way to gain the upper hand, and to be truthful, we’re not fighting a war anymore. We’re clawing after our own survival.”

“I’m sure I could teach you a few tricks, or at least give you a base model to modify,” Starscream said. “Skyfire and I were focused on the crude oil on our expedition, but there’s so much more.

Megatron smiled. Now, _this_ reminded him of the Starscream he knew. Starscream spoke of the humans on Earth, and how innovative they were. He didn’t like them much as a species apparently, but part of that was that they could become a genuine threat if Megatron -the one on Earth- didn’t stop antagonizing them.

Solar, heat, hydrogen, wind, even the ocean’s currents… Starscream listed off all the exciting ideas he was constantly lobbying to try as ways to collect energon instead of raiding the humans’ power plants. Megatron was enthralled and was already thinking about his own world and what resources he might be able to use in such ways.

“I don’t think you understand what you’ve just given me,” Megatron said, ember thrumming, emotion making his voice a little thicker. “None of us have considered any of the things you’ve just described. We have areas of high winds, and blasting heat vents.” He shook his helm and smiled, especially as Starscream’s optics dropped down and to the side. That was an expression he knew. “Thank you. Starscream, you may have just singlehandedly saved my family.”

Starscream’s wings twitched, his optics darting here and there, but then he straightened, whole body tensing. “I set an alarm.”

“It should be soon,” Megatron agreed and stood, pushing his scanners as far as they would go. He was fairly sure they were close, but there was no reason not to be ready to run for the rift.

Starscream quickly packed up the converter, then kicked the small fire out. He stood, sensors sweeping constantly, his wings lifting and dropping, flicking in his nervousness.

Megatron tried to remain calm, but as the time drew nearer, he could feel the tension starting to squeeze at his ember. It was alright if he was wrong. It was alright if he was _right_ but they just weren’t close enough to reach it when the rift opened. That happened multiple times to Soundwave and Bluestreak according to Starscream. They would be-

“There!” Starscream shouted, and launched forward.

Megatron reacted, thrusters engaging. He reached a hand forward, the heat of Starscream’s thrusters burning at the plating of his arm, and then they were falling. It only seemed to last an instant before they shot out into the night. Stars glittering above, and _Cybertron_ stretched out below. Megatron almost fell right out of the sky at the sight, but he hurried to regain his composure and follow Starscream.

“This is unbelievable,” Megatron said, optics sweeping over the land below. It was absolutely Cybertron, but it wasn’t at all like his world. Rusted, damaged. In fact much of it was in ruin, but the sky was clear and there was a building they were flying toward with _lights_ on. _Above_ the ground! It wasn’t poisoned. It wasn’t dead.

Starscream landed near the top of the building, so Megatron did as well, but he couldn’t tear his optics from the view. He only vaguely heard Starscream’s voice as it raised, the tone sharp and biting, but the words did not make it through Megatron’s wonder and awe. His ember ached, and part of him wanted to bring his mechs here instead of return to them. Let Prime and his madness have that world, there was life here. The Decepticons could recover, flourish.

“Megatron!”

Megatron startled, then turned with a sheepish expression. “My apolo-”

“Megatron, Purple boob. Purple boob, Megatron.”

“Shockwave!” Megatron gasped. The frame was mostly right, but the colors were completely wrong. Where was the bright, cheerful yellow? The pristine white? The rich blue? Was that a _gun_ the mech had for an arm? Just how different was this mech from the one he knew? He was stunned to realize that he’d been thinking of Starscream as an extreme case, despite knowing Cliffjumper and hearing his tales, but what if they were all like this?

“That is _not_ our Lord Megatron,” Shockwave said. His single yellow optic swept down, then back up Megatron’s body, and then he clicked in derision before turning back to Starscream. “What are you plotting this time, Starscream?”

“Oh, like you would believe me if I said I wasn’t, despite that being the truth?” Starscream snapped, his hands landing on his hips while his wings arched high.

“I do not see why I shouldn’t contact our Lord Megatron right now. I am sure he would be pleased to know you are… sneaking about with a strange mech here on Cybertron.”

“Sneaking? Are you glitched, you great buffoon? I- You know what, I don’t care what you think,” Starscream huffed, and then lifted his arm, casually aiming at Shockwave. “Get the space bridge online, dial it in to Earth, and _don’t_ frag it up.”

“I _will_ be contacting Megatron.”

Starscream growled, the weapon on his arm charging. Shockwave muttered something Megatron didn’t quite catch, but hurried off.

“Come on,” Starscream said, grabbing Megatron’s arm to tug him forward. “I swear to Primus and Unicron both, if that moron sends us right back to that planet, I’m going to find the rift, dive through, and rip his spark out with my bare hands.”

Megatron stumbled, but followed along, dazed, optics still a little wide as he tried to make sense of what he had just witnessed. Clearly, this Starscream and Shockwave did not get along very well. If anything, he thought they acted very similarly to the Autobots, and wasn’t that a frightening thought?

~

Starscream stepped out of the space bridge into the bright Utah sunshine, feeling the tension of weeks fall away from his shoulders and wings. He glanced over at Megatron, and then snickered. The mech looked completely stunned. “Welcome to Earth.”

“It is much like one of the lands we crossed,” Megatron said at length, turning slowly to take in the low scrubby plants and hard-packed dirt.

“It is. We’re in one of the deserts that make up a large portion of the southwestern region of this continent.” Starscream opened his comms, optics rolling at the blast of sputtering indignation from Red Alert. He didn’t bother to speak to the Autobot, just pinged for a file transfer tagged ‘Rift’ with the notation that they would be receiving a guest shortly, then said to Megatron, “I’ve commed the Autobots.”

Megatron spun toward Starscream, mouth open, optics wide and pale.

Snickering, Starscream shook his helm. “They’re the good guys here, remember? Prime’s as big a goody-goody as you. You’ll like him.” He flapped a hand in the direction of the _Ark_ , still grinning as he pinged Megatron the coordinates. “Fly that way, they’re expecting you. The landscape will change, but not as drastically as we saw on the other side of the rift. There will be tree-covered mountains, another desert, and then you’ll see a volcano with the orange aft of a large ship sticking out of it. I would be braced for a million questions if I were you. It’s not like they trust me or anything, so they’ll have to vet you themselves.”

“I… could come with you?”

Starscream paused, helm tipping. It would be nice to have a mech around who was actually willing to listen to him and his ideas, but this particular Megatron would be eaten alive in the _Victory_. “No,” he said after a moment. “I’ve forwarded all my information to the Autobots, just like Soundwave did when he returned. You’ll be of more use there with them. And you don’t want to meet your counterpart.”

“Then come with me.” Megatron stepped toward Starscream and caught his wrist with a light, warm hold. “You’re brilliant. You deserve to be around those who will appreciate your work and abilities.”

Helm shaking slowly, Starscream said, “No. I’m a Decepticon for a reason.” Sure, that reasoning had evolved, and maybe even changed -particularly in the last few weeks- but he was still a Decepticon, and he wasn’t going to hand himself over to the Autobots without being able to guarantee things wouldn’t go back to the way they’d been before the war. “Go on. They’ll look after you until I can figure this out.”

Megatron bit his lip and cycled his vents, and then acquiesced with a last gentle squeeze to Starscream’s wrist. “Thank you. For all you have done for me.”

Starscream shifted his weight, wings flicking, then pulled away to launch. Fragging Megatron. How was he supposed to respond to that ridiculous level of sincerity anyway?

**Author's Note:**

> [Day at the Beach by LB82](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7263373/chapters/16491511)


End file.
